Running In

[mickq]

Great information Mick,  This is what I am looking for also.

Get to pick up my beauty tomorrow I hope.

Want to run it in correctly, not kill it with the right foot, nor turn it into a *beep*.

Seems what your saying just about nails it for me.

Would be keen to see the route map thru Melb..

You can PM or mail it if you cant post it

Thanks.

Alan

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No probs.

Hey for those who really want to do it properly, here is some more detail. But be wary: there is a fine line between doing it properly and not being nice to your car!

You can see how anal the level of detail is below, which is why I didnt write it the first time. But from the number of PM's Ive got, here it is!

I suggest if you really want to do a good job you follow what I have written both here and above very closely. If anyone wants to know the real detail behind it, let me know and when I get time I will write it up.

Follow the same info I wrote above, but add this to it at the start, for the 0-60km mark. Alternatively if you are in doubt, just follow my original instructions and they will tend to work just fine.

You might have seen some people here who wrote "Drive it like you stole it". There is *some* truth to that saying, but its much more limited than they suggest.

The info below is written for the gearing on a Mk1 Manual. If in an Auto you may need to engage the manual gear change feature so you can control the gear its in and how many revs its doing.

For those driving autos, for a Mk1 the rough speeds each gear is used for are:

1st: 0-70kmh

2nd: 30-110kmh

3rd: 50-160kmh

4th: 50-jail

5th: jail - Premier Bracksie's execution chamber

Some background for you: When you buy a new car, or have a reconditioned engine, the cylinders have hone marks bored into them. These are left on purpose, and usually form a crosshatch pattern. They have two purposes:

a) To literally wear down the rings, so the rings and cylinder form a _very_ close seal with the cylinder surface.

b) To help hold some oil, for the short term.

However these hone marks dont last long at all. So you need to change your low km run in procedure to take advantage of them, and reflect the fact they dont last very long.

If you picked up your car and it has 60+km on it, dont stress that much,. Chances are a few test drives happened in your car, and chances are they were not that different from what I suggest below!

What you want to do is this:

All of these steps you want to try to get done by 60km mark or so. After that your hone marks are mostly gone so you cant take advantage of them to closely match your rings and cylinders.

You pick up your car. It has say 20km on the clock (hopefully!).

1) Let it warm up. It also ensures oil is distributed around the engine. Let it idle, maybe after a min or two with you _gently_ running it from 800 revs to 1000 then 2000 revs every now and then. Let it get to full operating temp. (On my T that's a little under halfway on the temp guage). A good way to tell is that the engine cooling fan will probably kick in. It doesnt usually take long to do this in a T as they put out a ton of heat.

2) Start out driving. Go nowhere near freeways. Best place is in the country on some road in the middle of nowhere, but city is cool.

3) Drive for a couple of km's gently, making sure all sounds well and no issues.

4) If all is OK, do a couple of short 2nd gear runs from say 30kmh to 70kmh. Half throttle. Once you get to 70 on each run, back off the throttle completely, and let the car slow down by itself (ie using the engine not the brakes) back to 30kmh. Drive around slowly (normal) for a min or two at city speeds to let the engine cool.

5) Do a few 30-70kmh runs in 2nd gear using 3/4 throttle. Again, be sure to let the car slow down by itself. This is just as important as the acceleration phase as it will help clear excessive oil from the bores and can help prevent glasing of the bores. Drive around slowly (normal) for a min or two at city speeds to let the engine cool.

6) Do a few runs from around 2300 revs to 4800 revs in 3rd gear (may need a freeway to do this....in a controlled off-road environment with a professional driver). Again at 3/4 throttle. Again let the engine slow itself down not using brakes. Watch out for cars behind you! Drive around slowly (normal) for a min or two at city speeds to let the engine cool. (Shouldnt be a problem at freeway speeds).

7) Do a couple of runs as above in 4th gear but start at 2000revs. Dont worry about this step if it means you have to break the law badly! Missing this step wont change things too much.

Back on normal roads, do 3 runs in second gear: 40kmh-60kmh. Full throttle.

If all is well, its time to open it up:

9) 3 x 2nd gear runs from 2000revs to redline. If you can, try to stop the run just before the rev limiter kicks in. Choose 5000 revs if you arent sure when it kicks in. Be sure to let the car slow itself down from each run, not use the brakes. (At the end of a 2nd gear run in the manual you will be doing ~105kmh or so).

By now you are hopefully near the 60km mark and Phase 1 of your breakin is done. The rings will be honed down by the crosshatch marks on your cylinders and will very closely match your cylinders.

If not yet up to 60km on your odo, Id repeat steaps 9 and 10 a couple of times. Once you finish your runs, it is CRITICAL that you let your car cool down well. Drive sedately at 50/60kmh in the proper gear so the engine is relaxed, revving slowly (but not so slowly you are loading the engine up!) and then once you stop, give it 2 mins of idling to let it cool.

Then its on to the steps I wrote in my earlier post for 60-100km, then follow each step for each km step above that.

A few notes for the early stages:

- Be sure to let the engine slow itself down after each run if you can. Dont brake. Its a really important step!

- Be extra sure you warm up the car before you start, and let it cool down well at the end.

Notes for later stages (60-1000km)

- Always let you car warm up and cool down. Cooling down is extra important on very hot days, after very long drives, or after spirited drives where the turbo is likely to have had good use. It only takes either a min or two slow driving at the end, or let the car sit and idle for a min or so before turning it off.

- Do NOT NOT NOT NOT delay your first oil change. Ideally you could even do one at the 60km mark if you follow the steps above as that's when max metal filings will be in your oil. But dont worry too much...you can follow the manufacturers recommendation and stick with 1000km. But dont delay after that. Changing at 1300km is NOT good enough. Get it?!

And there you have it, how I run my engines in, in excruciating detail! Applies to both cars and motorbikes, except that for motorbikes the revs change (higher as they redline much higher).

Edited 31/12/04 02:25 PM by mickq

[Dagabond]

65,000k's in, drivin it like I stole it from day one, still goes as hard as the day I bought it.

[Miyagi]

65,000k's in, drivin it like I stole it from day one, still goes as hard as the day I bought it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[harvyk]

Does anyone know if the engine on the T's runs richer during the first few thousand K's???

A mate of mine mentioned that a lot of newer cars during will run the engine a bit richer whilst the engine is been worn in...

Just wanting to know if there is any truth behind this with the XR6T's...

[Blown BA]

Does anyone know if the engine on the T's runs richer during the first few thousand K's???

A mate of mine mentioned that a lot of newer cars during will run the engine a bit richer whilst the engine is been worn in...

Just wanting to know if there is any truth behind this with the XR6T's...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All new cars run rich.

[Bain]

to add to the questions the original poster had.

Should you be almost red lining a new engine to bed the pistons and other components or be babying it?

Ive been told to cut back about 10%- 20% of how I would normally drive to bed in the engine.

Seeing as most of the time I will be driving if fairly spirited like..

Ive actually done this for my past 2 cars and never once had an engine issue (one car doing 115k km's before I traded it in and the other 45k km's before privately selling that too)

[fordboy1981]

first off no, NOT all new cars run rich new...

The BA does seem to, but my mk2 has over 6500km on it and is still averaging 18l/100km...

in terms of running it in, just thrash the feck out of it from the word go. basically drive it like you normally would from the moment you get it.

Dave.

[F6 UTE]

Go flog it if you want too... I wouldn't...

Just find some nice steep hills, put it in 4th and make it pull it's way up from very low revs... drive it normally, but don't thrsh it.....

always put the car under load, as often as you can..... thrashing isn't putting it under load either....

[Dan K]

I spoke to my dealer and he said the computer was designed to make the car run rich on run in. Basicly a saftey for the engine, and this mode would last 10 to 15 thousand k's depending on how many cold starts, highway km's etc. I asked because I average around 18l/100km and thought this was a bit steep.

[Bain]

always put the car under load, as often as you can..... thrashing isn't putting it under load either....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah I didnt mean I was gonna thrash it.

Hard acceleration and gear changes at higher revs rather than at 3k is what im talking bout